Insights and key findings from LCN’s 2024 Public Narrative Coach Training Program

What does a balance of emotional presence and holding authority look like?

How do I coach to a meaningful moment, not just a random one?

How do I frame and structure my questions for maximum impact within three minutes?

These are questions we explored with the 36 new coaches who graduated LCN’s public Narrative Coaching Training Program October, 2024. 

See below for our thoughts!

What’s PNCTP & Leading Change Academy?

The Public Narrative Coach Training Program (PNCTP) is an advanced program of the Leading Change Academy, aligning directly with its broader vision of enabling leaders around the world to drive meaningful social change. The Leading Change Academy, an integral pillar of LCN, committed to offer various trainings staring from community organizing & public narrative workshops, to building coaches & trainers capacity to meet individuals and organizations where they are with the tools to build leadership, mobilize communities, and inspire collective action. Through its diverse and global cohort, PNCTP enhances the Academy’s mission to build public narrative coaching capacity across continents. Over 3 years, PNCTP graduated 102 coach, from 33 countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Ghana, Germany, India, Ireland, Palestine, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Somalia South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom & United States.

“The eight-week PNCTP has been a transformative experience for both my personal and professional growth. It has deepened my understanding of storytelling and leadership in ways I didn’t anticipate, and provided me with tools to inspire action and foster connection.” – PNCTP Graduate

Insights from the Third PNCTP Cohort Evaluation (2024)

LCN’s Public Narrative Coach Training Program (PNCTP) recently concluded its third cohort, which brought together 36 participants from 12 countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Austria, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Jordan, Lebanon, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand. The cohort was highly diverse, with a balanced representation of genders and backgrounds, creating a rich learning environment.

We are excited to share these insights and outcomes with our broader community of coaches and trainers to spread the learning and inspiration across our network, encouraging others to harness the power of Public Narrative for leadership and change.

Here are a few of the questions we explored together, and our learnings on them:

What does a balance of emotional presence and holding authority look like?

This balance of support and challenge is at the heart of coaching. We explore how to respond to the emotional content of a story from the heart, to allow ourselves to be moved, and create space for emotion while also maintaining the coaching container and time boundaries. We each tend to default to one side of this in our lives beyond coaching too: do you tend to avoid emotion and keep on with whatever you’re doing (sometimes running roughshod over feelings), or do you tend to stop everything and sit with the emotion (sometimes to the detriment of getting things done)? It can be helpful to note your defaults and be mindful of holding the both/and.

How do I coach to a meaningful moment, not just a random one? Stories are made of moments, but not just any moments – meaningful moments in which the storyteller learned the values that call them to leadership, for the Story of Self (Or whatever the deeper purpose of the story you’re coaching.) Coaching to a meaningful moment begins with context, the broader picture of the person’s life. It then comes to a mention, perhaps many times when x happened, or a certain person who made them feel y. Then we can ask for one instance, and dive into the details of the moment. A powerful question order here includes first asking where they were, what they saw, what was happening, and then asking what they felt and what it meant to them. This ‘question funnel’ helps get to a meaningful moment, not just a random one! 

How do I frame and structure my questions for maximum impact within three minutes?

In the program we teach new coaches to ask questions from broad to specific, as outlined above. We also teach them to ask “as a human”! Instead of asking “what was your challenge,” we find it’s better to use the language of the storyteller themselves, for example, “It sounds like there were a lot of times you felt invisible. Would you share one of those moments with us?” In addition, watch out for questions like “How can you bring us into that moment?” – this is hard because the storyteller doesn’t know how to do that! As a coach, consider: what would you need to see to be in that moment with them? Ask that!

These coaching tips – and so many more more – are part of how we develop new coaches’ capacity. Through small group coaching of the coaching (‘meta-coaching’) participants get real-time targeted intervention on their practice, and develop in the moment through iterative practice. 

Check out the powerful findings of our evaluation below! 

Key Findings

Thank you to our incredible team of Meta-Coaches and Lead Trainers who made the success of the Public Narrative Coach Training Program possible. A special thanks to Lead Trainer Rosi Greenberg, and Meta-Coaches Andrea Ornelas, Rawan Zeine, Tanvi Girotra, Salma Sameh, Lacey Connelly, and Celine Lebrun Shaath. Your dedication, empathy, and insightful feedback were instrumental in fostering growth and transformation among our participants. We are also immensely grateful to our 36 participants for their commitment and engagement, which enriched the learning experience for everyone involved.

A heartfelt thank you to LCN’s Practioners and Marshall Ganz for his foundational contributions to the field of public narrative, which continue to inspire and guide us in our mission. Together, we are building a global community of leaders committed to driving meaningful, lasting social change.